Britain cautions Russia not to use detained ex-U.S. Marine as pawn

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Britain cautioned Russia on Friday that individuals should not be used as diplomatic pawns after a former U.S. Marine who also holds a British passport was detained in Moscow on espionage charges.

Paul Whelan was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service on Dec. 28. His family have said he is innocent and that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

"Individuals should not be used as pawns of diplomatic leverage," British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said.

"We are extremely worried about Paul Whelan. We have offered consular assistance," Hunt said. "The U.S. are leading on this because he is a British and American citizen."

Official sources familiar with U.S. and British intelligence told Reuters on Friday that they were unaware of any possible connections between Whelan and any U.S. or British agency.

One of the sources said experts at intelligence agencies believe Whelan would have been far more careful if he was a spy, working under official cover as a U.S. diplomat or "non-official cover" posing as a civilian.

Since leaving the U.S. military, Whelan had worked as a global security executive with U.S. companies, had visited Russia and developed a network of Russian acquaintances.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week Washington had asked Moscow to explain Whelan's arrest and would demand his immediate return if it determined his detention is inappropriate.

The FSB has opened a criminal case against Whelan but given no details of his alleged activities. In Russia, an espionage conviction carries a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years.

Whelan's detention further complicates a strained relationship between Moscow and Washington, despite the professed desire of Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to build a personal rapport.

U.S. intelligence officials accuse Russia of meddling in U.S. elections - a charge Russia denies.

Putin has previously stated he would rein in Russian retaliatory measures against U.S. interests in the hope relations would improve, but Whelan's detention indicates the Kremlin's calculations may now have changed.

SWAP SPECULATION

A Russian national, Maria Butina, admitted last month to U.S. prosecutors that she had tried to infiltrate American conservative groups as an agent for Moscow.

David Hoffman, a former CIA Moscow station chief, said it was "possible, even likely," that Russia had detained Whelan to set up an exchange for Butina.

Dmitry Novikov, a first deputy head of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, commenting on a possible swap, said Russian intelligence first needed to finish their investigations. "Then we'll see," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Whelan's British citizenship introduces a new political dimension. Relations between London and Moscow have been toxic since the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in March last year.

RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster, reported that Whelan also holds an Irish passport, and that the country's Department of Foreign Affairs said the Irish embassy in Moscow had requested consular access to one of its citizens detained in Russia who had requested assistance.

RUSSIAN TIES

Paul Whelan is 48 and lives in Novi, Michigan, according to public records. He is director of global security at BorgWarner, a U.S. auto parts maker based in Michigan.

The company said Whelan was "responsible for overseeing security at our facilities in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and at other company locations around the world". Its website lists no facilities in Russia.

U.S. media said he had previously worked in security and investigations for the global staffing firm Kelly Services, which is headquartered in Michigan and has operations in Russia.

"We are relieved and very pleased to know that staff of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow have been given consular access to Paul and confirmed that he is safe," his brother, David Whelan, said in an emailed statement on Friday. "Our focus remains on ensuring that Paul is safe, well treated, has a good lawyer, and is coming home."

Whelan's military record, provided by the Pentagon, showed that he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 14 years. The highest rank he attained was staff sergeant. He was discharged in 2008 after being convicted on charges related to larceny, according to his records.

Additional records provided by the Pentagon said Whelan had attempted to steal about $10,410 while in Iraq in 2006.

Whelan has for years maintained an account in VKontakte, a Russian social media network, which showed he had a circle of Russian acquaintances.

Out of the more than 50 people tagged as Whelan's friends on VKontakte, a significant number were software engineers or worked in the IT sector, and a significant proportion had ties to the fields of defense and security.

One of these people served in the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet, a photo of that person posted on his own account indicated. A second friend had on his VKontakte page photos of people in the uniform of Russian paratroop forces.

Whelan used the account to send out congratulations on Russian public holidays. In 2015, he posted the words in Russian: "In Moscow ..." and accompanied it with a Russian mobile phone number. The number was not answering this week.

According to his brother David, Whelan was in Moscow to attend the wedding of a fellow retired Marine. When he was detained he was staying with the rest of the wedding party at Moscow's upmarket Metropol hotel, the brother said. He did not specify the wedding location.

An employee at the hotel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Friday they could not access its database to check, but could not recall any weddings scheduled there in the second half of December.

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow, Barbara Goldberg in New York, Mark Hosenball and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mark Heinrich, James Dalgleish and Richard Chang)